Printing press



March 20, 1962 P. N. BOULDIN PRINTING PRESS 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 3, 1960 INVENTOR ATTORNEY P. N. BOULDIN PRINTING PRESS March 20, 1962 Filed Aug. 3, 1960 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR /?E$7'0N/1(B0ULD//V ATTORNEY PRINTING PRESS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Aug. 3, 1960 INVENTOR ATTORNEY United States atent Fr Q LECK' Patented Mar. 20, 1952 3,026,106 PRINTING PRESS Preston N. Bouidin, Rte. 3, Albertviile, Ala. Filed Aug. 3, 1969, Ser. No. 47,272 Claims. (Ci. 270-5) This invention relates to a printing press of extremely simple construction by means of which twelve page tabloids may be printed simultaneously in more than a single color.

More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing press of the letter-type or offsettype having two printing units and employing a unique arrangement for controlling travel of the webs through said units whereby a part of the paper is printed in two colors and the remainder of the paper is printed Sim taneously in a single color to produce a twelve page tabloid having four two color pages and eight single color pages, and wherein the travel of the webs is synchronized for correctly folding the tabloid as the printed webs reach the folder.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter become more fully apparent from the following description of the drawings, illustrating a presently preferred embodiment thereof, and wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view, partially in section and partially diagrammatic, of the printing press and showing the travel of the webs therethrough for printing partially in single color and partially in multi-color;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged cross sectional view taken substantially along a plane as indicated by the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary diagrammatic perspective view illustrating the travel of the webs through the printing units and to the folder of the press;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view, taken along the line 44 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view, taken along the line 55 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary end elevational view of a portion of the rear end of the press, and on an enlarged scale;

FIGURE 7 is a vertical sectional view, taken along the line 7-7 of FIGURE 6;

FIGURE 8 is a vertical sectional view, on an enlarged scale, taken along a plane as indicated by the line 88 of FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 9 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially along a plane as indicated by the line 99 of FIG- URE 4, and on an enlarged scale;

FIGURE 10 is a fragmentary bottom plan view of the structure shown in FIGURE 8, and

FIGURE 11 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of one element of the ink fountain shown in FIG- URE 5, and on an enlarged scale.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, the printing press in its entirety is designated generally 12 and includes a base 13 having rear corner uprights 14, front corner uprights 15 and intermediate uprights 16. Top longitudinal side braces 17 are provided, each of which is secured to the upper end of an upright 14, an upright 15 and an upright 16, and cross braces 18 extend between the two corner uprights 14 and the two corner uprights 15. The press 12 includes a conventional folder 19 which is disposed beyond the forward end of the base 13, from which the uprights 15 rise. The longitudinal top braces 17 extend beyond the front corner uprights 15 and have forward ends secured to posts 20 which rise from the folder 19.

The press 12 additionally includes two web directing rollers 21 and 22 which are supported by and extend between the uprights 16, approximately midway between the base 13 and the top braces 17; a web directing roller 23 which is supported by and disposed between the front corner uprights 15 at approximately the level of the roller 21; a Web directing roller 24 which is supported by the uprights 15, above and forwardly of the roller 23; a web directing roller 25 which is supported by and disposed between the top braces 17, substantially in vertical alignment with the roller 22, and a web directing roller 26 which is supported by and disposed between the top braces 17 and directly above the roller 24, The folder 19 is provided with three web directing rollers 27, 28 and 29.

The press 12 includes a first printing unit, designated generally 3%, which is fixed to and rises therefrom between the rear uprights 14 and the intermediate uprights 16, and a second printing unit, designated generally 31, which is fixed to and rises from the base 13 between the intermediate uprights 16 and the front uprights 15. The printing unit 31 includes a pair of blanket cylinders 32 and 33, between which the webs travel, and a pair of plate cylinders 34 and 35 between which the blanket cylinders are disposed. The unit 31 includes an inking system, designated generally 36, for supplying ink to the plate cylinder 34, and an inking system 37, for supplying ink to the plate cylinder 35, all of which structure of the unit 31 is conventional.

The first printing unit 3% includes the same arrangement consisting of blanket cylinders 32' and 33, plate cylinders 34 and 35, and inking systems 36 and 37'. However, the inking systems 36 and 37 each contain a slight modification, as will hereinafter be described, and forming a part of the present invention. structure as previously described constitutes a conventional combination of elements forming an offset-type press.

The press 12 diifers from a conventional press in that the paper slitter is omitted from above the roller 28. Instead, a roller 38 is mounted between the uprights 14, at the same level as the roller 22, and is provided intermediate of its ends with a groove 39 which extends completely around the periphery thereof, as seen in FIGURE 7. A bar 4t spans the rear uprights 14, above and adjacent the roller 38. A paper slitter, designated generally 41, includes an arm 42 having an eye 43 at one end thereof which engages the bar 40 and is adjustably secured thereto by a setscrew 44. Arm 42 has a bifurcated opposite end 45 in which a slitting wheel 46 is journaled on an axle 47. The wheel 46 has a sharpened periphery 48 for slitting a web 49 which passes over the roller 38, and said wheel 46 is disposed in alignment with the groove 39 so that its cutting edge 48 can operate in said groove 39 as the paper is slit thereby.

The improvement embodied in the press 12 also includes an additional web directing roll 50 which is disposed between and supported by the top braces 17, forwardly of the roller 26.

The modification in connection with the two inking systems 36' and 37 is in connection with the ink fountains 51 thereof, both of which are identical, and one of which is illustrated in FIGURES 5, 8 and 10 and partially in FIGURE 11. The two ink fountains 51 of the inking systems 36 and 37 difier from the conventional ink fountains 52 of the inking systems as and 37, one of which ink fountains 52 is illustrated in FIGURES S and 9, in that each ink fountain 51 has a divider 53 which extends across and rises from the upper side of the blade 54 thereof midway between the cheeks 55, which are fixed to and rise from the ends of said blade. The divider tapers in width from end-to-end thereof, as seen in FIG- URE 11, and has a bottom edge 56 which is disposed in abutting engagement with the upper surface of the blade 54 from side-to-side thereof. The wider end 57 of the Otherwise, the

' 3 divider 53 is concavely recessed, as best seen in FIGURES 8 and 11, to conformably engage an arcuate portion of the periphery of the inking roller 58 of said ink fountain 51. The other narrow end of the divider 53 has a turned back extension forming a hook 59 which underlies a part of the blade 54 and has a setscrew 60 threaded upwardly therethrough and by which the divider 53 is clamped to the blade. Said divider 53 combines with the cheeks 55, blade 54 and roller 58 for dividing the ink fountain 51 into two chambers 61 and 62 adapted to contain inks, not shown, of difierent colors. For example, the two vertically aligned chambers 61 may contain red ink while the chambers 62 contain black ink, so that red ink is supplied to one end half of each of the blanket rollers 32' and 33 and black ink is supplied to the other end halves of said rollers. The ink fountains 52 of the print:

ing unit 31 are not provided with dividers and will both contain black ink, so that black ink will be supplied to the entire surfaces of the blanket rollers 32 and 33.

Assuming that the paper strip or web 49 which is fed two half webs 63 and 64 will pass simultaneously through the first printing unit 30 and in so doing the right hand half web 63 will be printed in red on both sides thereof by the ink supplied from the two compartments 61 of the ink fountains 51. At the same time, the left hand half web 64 will be printed on both sides with black ink supplied from the compartments 62 of said fountains 51.

The two half webs 63 and 64 after passing through said first printing unit 30 pass under the roller 21 and the right hand half Web continues over the roller 22; however, the left hand half web 64 travels upwardly from the roller 21 and over the roller 25. A third half web 65 is fed upwardly into the press 12 between the printing units'30 and 31, said half web 65 being of the same width as the half webs 63 and 64. The half web 65 passes over the roller 22 and moves forwardly of the press from said roller 22 with the half Web 63 and through the second printing unit 31. Both sides of the two half webs 63 and 65 are printed in black in passing through the unit 31, after which said half webs pass under the roller 23, over the roller 24 and under the roller 27. During this time, the half web 64, after passing over the roller 25, travels forwardly of the press 12, above the second printing unit 31, and over the rollers 26 and t and thereafter under the roller 29 to converge with the half web 65 and pass over the roller 28 with said half web 65 and the half web 63. The roller 50 is so located as to synchronize the movement of the half web 64 with the movement of the two half webs 63 and 65 so that the three half webs can be folded to form the twelve page tabloids in a conventional manner by the folder 19. Pages 1, 2, '11 and 12 will be formed by the half web 63 and will be intwo colors, while the remaining pages, 3 to 10, formed by the half webs 64 and 65 will be in a single color.

By reversing the inks in the compartments 61 and 62 and running the web half 64 through both printing units 30 and 31, and entering the half web 65 at the right rather than the left, as seen in FIGURE 3, so that the web half 63 will then pass only through the first printing unit 30 and thence over the rollers 25, 26 and 50, pages 5, 6, 7 and 8 can be printed in two colors while pages 1 to 4 and 9 to 12 will be printed in a single color.

Obviously, any two colors of ink may be employed and the width of the web halves may be varied.

Various other modifications and changes are likewise contemplated and may be resorted to, without departing from the function or scope of the invention as hereinafter defined by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A printing press including a forward end and a rear end, a folder located at the forward end of the printing press, a first printing unit and a second printing unit, forming a part of the press and disposed in alignment with one another, said second printing unit being located between said first printing unit and the folder, a roller disposed at the rear end of said press, behind said first printing unit for guiding a web into said press, a paper slitter supported by the rear end of the press above said roller for slitting said Web longitudinally in half prior to feeding of said two web halves through said first printing unit, said first printing unit having means for printing both sides of a first one of said web halves in one color and both sides of said other second web half in a second color, said press having directing rollers located between said printing units for directing said first web half through said second printing unit and the second web half over said second printing unit, and for directing a third web half into the press between the printing units and in alignment with said second web half to travel through said second printing unit with said first web half, said second printing unit having means for printing both sides of said first web half and said third web half in said second color so that the full capacity of both printing units is utilized in printing the three half webs, and additional directing rollers disposed between said second printing unit and the folder for directing and guiding the three printed web halves into said folder.

2. A printing press as in claim 1, said last mentioned directing rollers including an upper set of directing rollers engaged by said second web half to synchronize the travel of said second web half with the first and third web halves at the folder.

3. A printing press as in claim 1, said means in the first printing unit including top and bottom ink fountains disposed above and beneath the path of travel of said first and second web halves, each of said ink fountains containing a divider forming two ink compartments in which the inks of the two colors are separately contained, inks of the same colors being disposed in vertically aligned compartments of said ink fountains.

4. A printing press including a first printing unit, a second printing unit and a folder, said second printing unit being disposed between the first printing unit and folder, means directing two half Webs simultaneously through said first printing unit, said first printing unit having means for printing the first one of said half webs on both sides in one color and a second one of the half webs on both sides in a different color, means for feeding a third half web into the press between the printing units and in alignment with said second half web and for feeding said third half web simultaneously with the first half web through said second printing unit, means in said second printing unit printing both sides of the first half web and th rd half web in a color corresponding to the color that said second half web was printed in said first printing unit so that the two printing units are utilized to their full capacities in printing both sides of the three half webs, and means for directing said second half web around the second printing unit to meet and be synchronized with the first and third half webs at the folder to provide a tabloid having two-thirds printed in a single color and one-third printed in two colors.

5. A printing press as in claim 4, each of said printing units being of the offset-type for simultaneously printing both sides of the half webs passing therethrough.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 627,311 Spalkhaver June 20, 1899 729,002 Spalkhaver May 26, 1903 2,300,549 Huck Nov. 3, 1942 

